Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Persoonia hirsuta

Flowering stems. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer S Douglas, Maroota South, north of Sydney

Fruiting stems. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer S Douglas, Maroota South, north of Sydney

Common name

Hairy geebung

Family

Proteaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, and heath, on sandstone.

subsp. evoluta: Sydney area and north.

subsp. hirsuta:  Coast, ranges, and tablelands, mostly between Appin and Bowral.

Notes

Shrub to 1.5 m high to sprawling, hairs greyish to tawny. Fruit fleshy. Bark smooth. Young branchlets moderately to densely hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 0.5–1.4 cm cm long, 0.7–5 mm wide, convex in cross section, surfaces almost hairless to densely hairy, and rough, margins curved to rolled down. Flowers with 4 yellow to orange 'petals' each about 10 mm long, more or less fused at the base, moderately to densely hairy on the outside. Flowers subtended by scale leaves and leaves, in 1–10-flowered, sometimes leafy, clusters. Flowers chiefly Nov.–Jan. 

Endangered Australia. Endangered NSW. Protected NSW.

subsp. evoluta: Leaves spoon-shaped to elliptic or narrowly so, 1.5–5 mm wide, margins curved down.

subsp. hirsuta:  Leaves linear to narrow-oblong, 0.75–1.5 mm wide, margins rolled down.

NSW Threatened Species profile of species:  http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10595 (accessed 7 January, 2021)

PlantNET description of species and key to the two subspecies:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Persoonia~hirsuta (accessed 7 January, 2021)

Flora of Australia descriptions of species and subspecies:  https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Persoonia%20hirsuta (accessed 7 January, 2021)